Adding data to a PDC from an orderer peer - Hyperledger Fabric

Question

Let's say I manage a Hyperledger Fabric Network and I have control on the orderer peers of the orderer organization. Is it possible for me to submit data to a PDC of another org, using an orderer peer to do it?

Do the policies of the PDC allow that?

Thanks.

I haven't tried. I'm just curious about that possibility.

Answer 1

TL;DR: No, the orderer nodes cannot insert information into private data collections.

Data to be added to private collections is stored by peers in a transient data store during endorsement. A signed transaction proposal containing the private data is sent by the client to the endorsing peers with no involvement from the orderer.

The endorsed transaction is then sent to the orderer to be committed in a block, but that does not contain the private data. The block containing the transaction is distributed (by the orderer) to peers, which then validate the transaction (including checking it has sufficient peer endorsements) and, if they have access to the private data collection it updates, apply the data from their transient store to the private data collection.

The orderer never sees the private data and cannot insert information into private data collections.

This documentation page provides more detailed information:

https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/latest/private-data/private-data.html